The Times Tech Podcast

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Eric Verdin, president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, to talk about metformin (5:20), his background (9:30), the origin of the Buck (12:30), getting support from techies (14:50), the birth of geroscience (19:20), exercise and the 10,000 steps phenomenon (27:10), tracking down the pathways of ageing (28:55), what the research looks like five years from now (35:10), healthspan (41:20), the Moore’s Law of ageing (46:20), how post codes are the single biggest determinant of longevity (50:25), age reversal (57:00), the longevity dividend (1:00:40) and the value of a glass of wine (1:09:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Tom Oxley, founder of Synchron, to talk about putting the first brain implant into a US patient (3:50), helping paralysed patients (6:55), getting the device into the brain (11:00), what this means for humans (14:25), understanding the brain (18:30), how he got started (24:00), creating Synchron (30:05), and the how the Pentagon helped fund the company (32:20). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Iggy Bassi and Karan Chopra of Cervest to talk about measure climate risk (4:40), launching Cervest after starting a company in Ghana (8:40), what they learned from growing rice (11:55), climate data (17:00), how they sell it (22:00), raising money (27:00), how climate intelligence is used by businesses (33:30), climate health scores (40:20), the problem with heat (43:15), and integrating climate risk scores into (47:30) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Matthew Ball, investors and Author of The Metaverse, and How it Will Revolutionize Everything, to talk about why the time is near for the metaverse (3:45), the metaverse economy (8:40), bringing together different technological and cultural strands (10:15), what’s going to be different (12:30), the importance of generational shifts (15:05), the definition (18:45), why there are no legs in Meta’s Horizon Worlds (23:55), the hardware challenge (26:00), who loses (31:55), Netflix (34:00), and why foresight and resource may not matter (35:45). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on investor Mike Alfred to talk about the crypto meltdown (8:50), why this is different than the 2008 financial crisis (12:20), why more pain is coming (18:00), why he was worried about Celsius and BlockFi (22:10), and what the collapse means for the economy (28:05). THEN: Alex Garden of Zume comes on to talk about the food supply chain (32:20), alighting on pizza (37:35), replacing plastic with compostable packaging (41:50), the problem with plastic (45:05), how soggy pizza led to a pivot (51:00), scaling up (56:50), days that end in “why?” (1:06:50), and the painful decisions required to survive (1:08:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on John de Souza, to talk about replacing car batteries, not charging them (6:20), starting with fleets (11:30), growing up in Africa and Dubai (15:00), producing a movie (19:00), entering uni at 16 (22:10), selling his first startup to Bill Gates (24:05), becoming an investor (27:40), then doing a few more startups (32:25), alighting on EV charging (33:40), getting the car companies to buy in to swappable batteries (39:20), raising $260 million (42:40), why superchargers aren’t enough (44:35), the future of the energy transition (48:20), and his deal with Uber (50:40). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday  Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Harley Finkelstein, president of Shopify, to talk about the market mayhem (3:50), Shopify coming out of the shadows (5:25), how it got started (11:30), how Amazon have up on the online stores business (19:35), getting into delivery (22:45), the renewed Amazon threat (27:45), the future of direct-to-consumer commerce (31:30), how Apple has upended online ads (36:10), and the best and worst of going fully remote (38:30). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Kentaro Kawamori to talk about starting out in the oil industry (3:30), growing up all around the world (8:00), doing esports (10:00), going to three universities at once (13:30), dealing with drunken Japanese salarymen (14:40), the need for carbon accounting (17:30), how Persefoni works (24:15), Big Oil billionaires backing climate tech (27:15), raising $100 million (29:00), what happens after measurement (32:30), why Exxon’s loss to green investors was a big deal (34:30), the SEC pushing through with climate disclosure rules (38:10), and his worst day of work (41:50). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on two guests this week. First up is Steven Levy, editor-at-large at Wired and author Facebook: The Inside Story, to talk about Sheryl Sandberg’s original “deal” with Mark Zuckerberg (5:00), what Facebook was in the early days (7:10), the failure of the Zuck-Sheryl partnership (9:30), consolidation of Zuckerberg’s power (19:00), the Washington DC operation (21:00), what Sandberg does next (26:30), and what Meta does next (31:20). Then Chris Sheldrick, co-founder and CEO of What3words, comes on to talk about dividing the world into 57 trillion squares (36:30), the origin of the idea (38:40), getting the world to sign up (42:00), partnering with Jaguar Land Rover (44:10), breaking into America and other markets (46:50), the battle for mapping dominance (50:15), the business model (54:20), translating the system into different languages (55:50), and getting its first contract - in Mongolia (57:40) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Sunday Times’ tech correspondent Danny Fortson brings on Anne Boden, founder of fintech unicorn Starling Bank, to talk about the post-pandemic workplace (3:30), the market collapse (8:40), starting a bank after the recession (11:50), growing up in South Wales (14:25), why banks aren’t good at tech (17:45), how people reacted to her as a first-time, 50-something entrepreneur (22:00), the first “yes” after 400 “no’s” (25:00), the banks’ lack of confidence (30:00), getting to 3 million customers in three years (33:40), sexism (39:40), breaking out of being a “trial bank” (42:20), crypto (43:40), and money laundering in London (46:25). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.